Sunday, May 31, 2015

Printed Cotton Bans

France

Starting in 1686, France
prohibited both the importation of Indian printed fabric as well as
the printing of cottons. The combination of this ban with the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove Huguenot printers out of
France (8, 37), taking their knowledge and experience to other
countries such as England, Sweden, and Switzerland. Though some
printers relocated to the free areas of Alsace and Marseille or rural
areas away from the reach of the law(8, 38), the French printing
industry was largely crippled.

People caught with printed
cottons faced confiscation, fines, or imprisonment. In 1717, the
government added the option of condemning people to life on a French
galley (10.3, 224). Despite the threat of punishment, it was
estimated in 1701 that 12 million livres of calicos changed hands in
France, mostly smuggled from Amsterdam or London, or smuggled
directly from India by the French East India Company. Generally only
the most flagrant (merchant) offenders were harshly punished.
However, hundreds of women were publicly stripped of their clothes,
which were then burned. On the whole, enforcement of the ban was
infrequent (8, 38).

In 1759, in the face of
failure of enforcement and loss of technological advantage, the ban
was finally lifted. Within a year, Christophe-Phillippe Oberkampf had
established his print works at Jouy and soon gained fame for his
“Toiles de Jouy.”

England

English silk and wool
weavers began to complain about the increased competition in the
1670s (9, 25). The government's initial response was to increase
duties on imported fabrics from 20% in the early 1690s to 35% in 1700
(12, 119). The Calico Act of 1701 stated that “all calicoes of
China, Persia or the East Indies that are painted, dyed or printed or
stained there... shall not be worn or otherwise used in Great
Britain” (7, 157). This Act still allowed re-exportation of Indian
printed cottons as well as the importation of plain white cottons,
which could legally be printed for domestic consumption (10.6, 338).
The re-exportation loophole led to much smuggling as ships ostensibly
left for colonial markets, but actually doubled back to other British
ports (9, 25).

Domestic printers were
buoyed by the ban on imports, since they could import white cottons
and print perfectly legal imitations of Indian fabrics. This led to
an increase in the number of print works (10.3, 223). As domestic
production ramped up, dissatisfaction among the silk and wool weavers
began to boil over again. One wrote in 1702:

Though
it was hoped that this prohibition would have discouraged the
consumption of those goods, we find that allowing calicoes unstained
to be brought in, has occasioned such an increase of the printing and
staining calicoes here, and the printers and painters have brought
that art to such perfection, that it is more prejudicial to us than
it was before the passing of that Act. (11, 112)

Violence began to break out
in 1720, with women being assaulted and stripped naked in London if
they were found by the mob to be wearing the prohibited cloth. Some
even had acid thrown at them (12, 119).

The government issued the
Calico Act of 1721 which no longer exempted white Indian cottons. It
also forbade printing on domestically produced all cotton fabrics.
However, Indian handkerchiefs and muslins were still allowed, as was
printing on fustians (cotton/linen blend fabrics) (10.6, 338). To
further confuse matters, the Act also exempted any Indian fabrics
that were already in the country – a fact difficult to prove or
disprove (9, 25). Smuggling continued and cotton fabrics continued to
be available (12, 127).

As British weavers refined
their fustians, the quality approached that of all-cottons (8, 83).
For a third time, the silk and wool weavers protested. This time,
however, the government merely reenforced their previous decision by
issuing the 1736 Manchester Act. This new act reaffirmed that as long
as the printing was done on fustian, it was allowed (5, 17). The Acts
stood thus until all-cotton fabrics were finally allowed in 1774 (11,
127).